256 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
that war had broken out between the Abyssinians and the 
Su4kin dervishes. 
During three days I made six marches, covering sixty miles, 
in a course running almost due north. The only game I saw 
on these marches was a wart-hog, which stared me in the face 
at a distance of ten feet as I was moving through long grass 
at dawn. The rising sun was shining in his eyes, and I 
knocked him over stone-dead by a shot in the chest before he 
had time to realise the situation. 
On the morning of the 26th I heard that near a karia 
ahead of us a man had been attacked by a man-eating lion 
and was not expected to live. I made a short march to the 
karia and halted for the noon camp close by. At the request 
of the relations of the sick man, while camp was being pitched, 
I walked over to the karia with my hunters, carrying a bucket 
full of carbolic lotion, a quart of carbolic oil, iodoform, lint and 
bandages, and a syringe. We came to a hut, outside which 
was a crowd of people ; and looking in I saw, lying on the 
ground, the bare body of a man. He was smeared over the 
head and body with dust and blood, and had seven or eight 
deep fang-wounds in the small of the back and low down in 
his left side. All the wounds were uncared for and swarming 
with white maggots ! I asked to have him carried outside the 
hut, where it was lighter ; but his relations objected, saying it 
would give him unnecessary pain, and it was the will of Allah 
that he should die. The man, however, after some persuasion 
consented, and as gently as we could we lifted him from the 
floor of the hut, where he had been lying for the last thirty 
hours, and laid him on a camel-mat outside. Having obtained 
permission to try my best with the medicines I had, I first 
got his wife to wash him all over, the other relations looking 
on at every movement of the white man with great interest. 
When washed, he looked more cheerful, and I made a careful 
examination of the wounds. There were eight deep holes in the 
small of the back, dangerously near the spine, where the lion 
had taken him up and dropped him two or three times ; and a 
couple of wounds deep in the left side, which fortunately had not 
penetrated the bowel. I told the man that there was no reason 
why he should not recover, and he became quite cheerful, 
and gave permission to probe the wounds. His uncle now 
appeared with a piece of stick having a shred of tobe twisted 
round it, and with this rough instrument we probed all the 
